Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word lick. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word lick, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say lick in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word lick you have here. The definition of the word lick will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oflick, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
"What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl -- they're so thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. […]"
1957 December 30, Ren Grevatt, “Concensus Tabs Stereo Disk Still in Research Stage: Diskery and Phono Toppers Sound Tempering Notes of Caution”, in Billboard, page 11:
This week, diskery and phono manufacturer spokesmen sounded tempering notes of caution as they discussed the many problems still to be licked in developing truly compatible stereo with fidelity standards equal to those now available in monaural disks.
Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Why don't I call Jean-Michel at Il Portofino? We'll get a table outside? Ooh, I'm not getting a lick of service. Babe, can I hop on your landline?
1984, Mel Tillis, Walter Wager, Stutterin' Boy, page 170:
Well, my album did well, but "Ruby" was a timely song and that wasn't the time for it to step out. […] Then Waylon Jennings took a lick at it on an album, and my old buddy Roger Miller covered it, too, in his album. And although they're outstanding artists, nothing much happened with the song.
There are some really good blues licks in this solo.
(informal) A rate of speed. (Always qualified by good, fair, or a similar adjective.)
The bus was travelling at a good lick when it swerved and left the road.
1852, John Denison Vose, Fresh Leaves from the Diary of a Broadway Dandy, page 109:
Dandy Marx, a perfect gentleman in the true sense of the word, now drives forth under single harness ; whereas “once upon a time,” he rushed over the ground at a “big lick,” reigning his four beautiful roans, and continually kicking up an extra excitement among the “fashionables.”
An instance or opportunity of earning money fast, usually by illegal means, thus a heist, drug deal etc. or its victim; mostlyused in phrasal verbs: hit a lick, hit licks
2018 July 27, “Strip Talk”, Marty Mula (lyrics), 1:52:
Bitch, pig, pull out with the stick / everything I hit like a lick / We don’t miss
2019 January 31, Lil Darkie (prod. Wendigo), “rap music” (1:55 from the start):
You see a lick and you rob him / I see a lick then I stop on the block and I pause him
2020 January 9, “1AM”, in Nasty, performed by Jaykae and Kida Kudz:
JAEKAE: Free all my G’s, they got locked for licks. Five minutes of fame and I’m hittin’ for six. Past seven, eight, nine, and you’re in my bits.
2020 April 7, “Did Alotta”, Kai Bandz (lyrics), 1:07:
Remember on my first lick, got lost in a house / Had to dip, bro, quick, before the dogs came out
2022 February 1, Kruk One (lyrics and music), “Intoxicated” (1:55 from the start):
Is it really necessary how I live the way I do it I live for the lick – you see me breathing, I just proved it
1867, “SONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page 108:
Duggès an kauddès coome lick up a rhyme,
Dogs and cats came to lick up the cream.
References
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 54 & 108